This invention relates generally to the field of inventions, and more particularly to a machine for drafting a patent application and process for doing same.
Applications for patents to protect inventors"" ideas are filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and with other patent offices throughout the word. Traditionally, an inventor seeks the assistance of a trained patent application draftspersonxe2x80x94either a patent attorney or patent agent in the United States or the equivalent in foreign countries. Without a patent application on file with the Patent Office, the laws do not allow the term patent pending or similar indicia to be placed on a product anticipated to be covered by a patent. The term patent pending is considered of importance as it conveys the patent status to potential copiers and the public. Further, many companies otherwise interested in licensing rights to manufacture from the inventor are unwilling to recognize the inventor""s creative contribution in the form of payment unless an application for patent has been made to the patent office.
Patent applications have been drafted and submitted to the Patent Office on behalf of inventors by patent attorneys and patent agents since the first person was certified to act on behalf of an inventor by the U.S. Patent Office on Aug. 3, 1894. Before that time and since, inventors have also represented themselves and prepared their own patent applications to the Patent Office.
Patent attorneys, patent agents and individual applicants have a variety of methods for application drafting. In addition, there are a number of books available on patent law, patent office practice, patent examiners"" procedure and even the drafting of patent applications. Further, there is a computer software application designed to assist the individual inventor in preparing a patent application entitled Patent It Yourself available from Nobo Press in California.
Patent attorneys and patent agents charge the inventor a substantial amount of money for the attorney""s or agent""s education, experience, and knowledge in application drafting. Often, this amount of money exceeds many thousands of dollars and is cost prohibitive for the inventor. If the inventor""s expense is paid for by a corporation for one reason or another, such as an obligation to assign the invention to the corporation, the corporation""s expense may be unduly burdensome when multiplied by the number of inventions on which it wishes to file applications for patent protection, in which case patent protection may not be sought for all inventions.
Further, there are problems inherent in the application process based on the inventor trying to teach the attorney or agent sufficient information concerning the invention so that proper depth and breadth of protection is sought through application for patent. It is often only after a patent has been issued and is litigated in a court of law that it comes to light that the inventor contemplated aspects of the invention that the attorney or agent failed to realize, failed to appreciate the importance of, or failed to solicit from the inventor, resulting in the aspect(s) of the invention being left unprotectedxe2x80x94and that may be the very aspect over which an otherwise illegal copier is able to avoid liability.
The books on patent law, patent office rules and regulation, and patent examining procedure do little to help an inventor prepare a patent application. The patent application drafting books fall into two categories: 1) those written for attorneys and agents; and 2) those written for the lay person. The books written for the lay person (often written by attorneys or agents) make the explanation of drafting a patent application so difficult and involved that the lay person often throws up his or her hands in frustration and contacts the author of the book to draft the application. In addition, the books currently available include information unnecessary to the drafting of the patent application, such as patent prosecution, licensing, foreign prosecution, invention marketing, etc. Moreover, even if the inventor segregated the application information and tried to understand the application process from the book, without experience and training, certain sections of the patent application are perceived to be easier to draft than other sections. The average draft-it-yourself inventor is often too tempted to skip first to the perceived easier sections and later return to the bothers. This procedure using a book all too often results in an application unsuitable for filing with the Patent Office. Of course, the books written for the patent attorney or agent are often far to detailed for the inventor""s needs and contain extraneous information not necessary for the patent application drafting.
The computer software designed for the draft-it-yourself inventor suffers from the same shortcomings: difficult for the inventor to understand the essentials of drafting a patent application; and the ability to skip from section to section in no set order resulting in an unsuitable application. Further no method of analysis is provided to the inventor for developing the proper understanding of his invention for purposes of the application.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved computer based machine to aid in drafting a patent application.
Another object of the invention is to provide an interactive, computer machine that prompts a user for appropriate information useful in drafting a application for letters patent.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of preparing a patent application that is sequentially based one section upon another.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method and machine to aid in preparing an application for letters patent that significantly reduces and may even avoid the expense of employing a patent attorney or agent.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a machine and method for patent application preparation that avoids the necessity to educate a third party of the substance of an invention.
Still yet another object of the invention is to provide a machine and method for patent application preparation that does not require significant knowledge of substantive patent law.
Another object of the invention is to provide a machine and method for patent application preparation that automatically incorporates legal requirements without the need to consult a patent attorney or patent agent.
Another object of the invention is to provide easier and cheaper access to the patent office while reducing or avoiding the need of a patent attorney or patent agent.
A further object of the invention is to provide easy and inexpensive access to patent pending status for an inventor.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method of analyzing and presenting an invention in the form appropriate for filing with the Patent and Trademark Office.
Still yet another object of the invention is to provide a computer based machine to aid in drafting a patent application that automatically drafts portions of a patent application based upon user input.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein, by way of illustration and example, an embodiment of the present invention is disclosed.
In the preferred embodiment, a machine for drafting a patent application comprises an input device such as a keyboard or mouse, an output device such as a display or printer, and a computer for receiving data from the input devices and for transmitting data to the output devices. The computer also stores program steps for program control and manipulates data in memory. The machine also requests and stores information regarding the invention including, if appropriate: 1) qualities and benefits (QAB) of the invention over the prior technology; 2) primary elements (PE) of the invention that define the invention apart form prior technology; 3) secondary elements (SE) of the invention that may be important but not necessary to define over the prior technology; and 4) substitute elements (SUB) of the invention that may substituted or modified in an effort to avoid the primary and secondary elements but not depart from the invention. The QAB are requested and stored before the objects of the invention are drafted, the PE, SE, and SUB are requested and stored before the claims are drafted, the claims are drafted before the summary of the invention, the abstract of the disclosure, and the detailed description of a proffered embodiment are drafted. Drafting the sections is in a predetermined order disallowing for jumping ahead to draft a later section.
In a preferred embodiment, a process for drafting a patent application comprises the steps of inputting data into a computer through a device such as a keyboard an mouse, and outputting data through a device such as a display or printer. The computer also is for storing program steps for program control and manipulating data in memory, including requesting and storing information regarding the invention including, when appropriate: 1) qualities and benefits (QAB) of the invention over the prior technology; 2) primary elements (PE) of the invention that define the invention apart form prior technology; 3) secondary elements (SE) of the invention that may be important but not necessary to define over the prior technology and; 4) substitute elements (SUB) of the invention that may substituted or modified in an effort to avoid the primary and secondary elements but not depart from the invention. The QAB are requested and stored before the objects of the invention are drafted, the PE, SE and SUB are requested and stored before the claims are drafted, the claims are drafted before the summary of the invention, the abstract of the disclosure, and the detailed description of a preferred embodiment are drafted. Drafting the sections are done in a predetermined order disallowing for jumping ahead to draft a later section.
In a preferred embodiment, a system for describing an innovation comprises at least an input to a computer memory for storage of information regarding a plurality of sections of a technical description, means for functionally linking said sections to one another in a predetermined fashion, output from a computer of each of said sections for revision by a user, storage of each revised section in said memory, means for compiling said sections in a predetermined order, and output from the computer of said compiled sections.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms.